1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mounting a fan in a protective housing of electronic equipment and more particularly to securing a fan in a fan carrier.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic components, such as processors, gate arrays, programmable logic, memory chips, disk drive motors, and power supplies generate heat during normal operation. Because these electronic components are usually enclosed within a protective housing such a computer chassis, the heat produced by these components can be trapped within the housing, and thus, cause the temperature to rise within the housing. These high temperatures can damage the semiconductor circuits located within the protective housing or significantly shorten the working life of the electronic components. In some cases, these circuits may catastrophically fail due to the high temperatures. One common method of reducing the temperature inside the protective housing of electronic systems is to use a fan to circulate the air inside the housing and to bring in cooler air from outside the housing.
A fan carrier can be used to mount a fan in the protective housing of an electronic system such as a computer system. Typically, a fan carrier retains the fan and allows for the easy installation and removal of the fan from the protective housing. However, a fan carrier must be specifically designed for the height, width, and depth of the fan to be mounted. Thus, if one wanted to increase the air flow in the protective housing by adding a fan with a greater depth, a new fan carrier would have to be installed as well. Another problem is that fan carriers can increase the complexity and cost of manufacturing electronic systems such as computer systems.
What is needed is a fan carrier that can hold fans of different depths and that is simple to install.